AN ODD-job worker thought he had hit on the ideal way to swipe a diamond ring from a jeweller: he swallowed it, price tag and all.

But Mohamad Azman Abdullah, 48, was caught right away, and handed to the police, who took him to hospital.

At Tan Tock Seng Hospital, doctors inserted a long flexible tube down his throat and into his tummy, using instruments at the end to fish out the $2,689 sparkler and its gold setting.

He had to stomach this uncomfortable procedure, called an endoscopy, which is usually done without anaesthesia.

In court on Wednesday, Azman pleaded guilty to the theft and was jailed 1 1/2 years.

What he did not know on the day he went to the Taka Jewellery kiosk at the Midpoint Orchard shopping centre last October was that the staff were watching him closely.

Just a month before, they found several rings gone after Azman had stopped by, so their eyes were peeled.